Invest in experiences, not things

Carnaval

May 9, 2016by Natalie |

With the decision made to leave the boat for sale in La Paz, we sailed back into La Paz and got a slip at Marina Cortez. We had lots of work to do, and wanted the ease of living at the dock while we did it all. Plus, there was a giant Norther in the forecast and we didn’t want to be stuck in the anchorage unable to enjoy the events of Carnaval that was starting on February 4th.

Sully trying not to get blown off the dock. The wind was really blowing! Marina Cortez is not as well protected as Marina de La Paz so we were bouncing around a lot and had to put chafe gear on our lines, but being at the dock was wonderful!

Our first order of business was to take pictures of the boat for the listing. We spent a long day moving everything from the front of the boat to the back of the boat to clean, stage and take pictures. The next day we did the back of the boat. We also started listing a ton of our stuff for sale on the morning radio net and on the bulletin board at Club Cruceros, so throughout the day we had lots of people stopping by to buy our stuff. We ended up making over $5,000 on random things that didn’t need to be sold with the boat like our kayak, five boxes of wine that had summered over on the boat in Guaymas (Nate had been drinking it, but I thought it tasted terrible! He let the buyers have a taste before they took it away. Cruisers aren’t that picky about their wine, because they paid $10 a box!), a pair of binoculars that came with the boat that I found out originally go for $400(!), and our life raft that we had re-certified before leaving in 2014.

We also worked on cleaning up the outside of Astraea. We cleaned and polished the stainless for the first time ever! Worst boat owners ever, here. I guess it was never that important to us, or just on the bottom of the never ending list of boat projects. She ended up looking so pretty we wished we would have done it sooner!

We kept busy working during the day, but Sully needed some fun and time off the boat. We were lucky that Rosie from s/v Puddle Pirate was around. She took Sully out and ran the Malecon while he rode his motorcycle, took him to the playground and out for ice cream. He was so exhaused when he got home that he fell asleep and we couldn’t get him to wake up until 8pm! But that’s normal playtime for Mexican kids, so we didn’t feel bad staying out until almost midnight on the first night of Carnaval riding rides and seeing all there was to see.

Sully’s first ride was the tanks!

Then we found the bounce houses and he was occupied for an hour.

Luckily they were right by the stage, so while Sully played we could watch the performances and drink lots of Tecate beer!

You know the Music Express? We decided it would be a fun ride to go on with Sully sitting on the inside getting squished against us. But because of some ticket confusion, it ended up just being Sully and I. It was fun for a few minutes, but it just got faster and faster and Sully was screaming, “Stop it Mommy!!”, and it was getting harder to hold on to Sully and keep myself from flying out! Finally, the ride started to slow down and I thought it was over…but it wasn’t. It stopped and the went backwards! All the hot dogs, churros and beer in my stomach was not setting well with the spinning movement so I just clung to Sully and the bar and closed my eyes while Sully screamed. Whoops! We stuck to the kiddie rides after that!

After being terrified with Mommy, Nate took Sully on the bumper cars and had a blast! When he got off he said, “Daddy rides are better.”

These boats were great and Sully went on them every night

Lots of games lined the street. Who wouldn’t want to win a stuffed cigarette?!

Would have been fun, but we never went on the swings.

Sully looked a little nervous about his ride on the caterpillar roller coaster, but he ended up having fun.

The theme for Carnaval La Paz was”Las Muses de Alegria” or “The Muses of Joy”. The last three nights brought out the biggest crowds because of the parades. We watched the first parade on Sunday from the balcony of Harker Boards Pizza with David and the crew of s/v Nomi. It was also the night of the Super Bowl so there was a lot of entertainment. The next two nights we watched from street level, so we got a closer look at the floats and costumes. The parade is the same for three nights, but each time we noticed different things. Our favorite float was a truck platform with little kids drumming along to AC/DC’s hit “Highway to Hell”.

Sully got a little bored watching the same parade three times, so he bounced in the quadruple trampoline while we watched from close by.

We were glad that we got to experience Carnaval in La Paz. It was a nice way to unwind after long days of working on the boat. We lived off of Mexican street hot dogs (bacon wrapped hot dog in a soft steamed bun with chili sauce, onions, tomatoes, mayo, ketchup and mustard – so good!) and churros (some filled with chocolate, caramel or sweetened condensed milk) and lots of Tecate beer for six nights and had a blast watching Sully ride all the kiddie rides. Plus, when else would he get to float around a pool in a giant ball and ride a mechanical bull?!

Hi! We’re Nate, Natalie and Sully and here’s our plan:

Our mantra is "Invest in experiences, not things." Our goal is to travel and experience everything life has to offer before we get too old. To meet that goal, we bought a boat and lived aboard while outfitting her for coastal cruising. We 'cut the dock lines' in November 2014 and now we are heading south along the coast from San Diego to Mexico! This blog is to help us remember our trip and so our friends and family can follow along on our journey.